


We Thought They'd Never End

by BarbaraKaterina



Series: At The Rope's End [7]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Bucky has just about had it, Civil War Team Iron Man, Gen, Not Steve Rogers Friendly, POV Bucky Barnes, first meeting after Civil War
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-06
Updated: 2020-03-06
Packaged: 2021-02-28 19:28:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,848
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23042518
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BarbaraKaterina/pseuds/BarbaraKaterina
Summary: Bucky and Steve meet for the first time since the events of the Civil War. Bucky's found out some things since then, and he's not impressed.This is part of the End of a Rope series, and while it does make limited sense as a standalone, I recommend reading it without context only for those who have a particular weakness for Bucky being irritated by Steve.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes & Steve Rogers
Series: At The Rope's End [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1005141
Comments: 7
Kudos: 226





	We Thought They'd Never End

**Author's Note:**

> I had the perfect name for this, and it was in Czech. So I had to go with a less perfect fit, but the spirit of it is similar. (For any Czech readers, I wish I could call it "Kde je ti konec", because "Kam jsme se poděli" by Nohavica captures the atmosphere here even better than Those Were The Days, I think.)

It took Bucky two days to convince himself to return to New York after Steve came back, which was telling on its own, really.

The thing was, after what they told him about Maximoff, he’d read up on her and everything related to the old Avengers and the so-called Civil War. He did it properly, too, not only reading what FRIDAY gave him, but also going to public libraries and accessing the internet from there to make sure she was not filtering his information. 

What he read was...terrible. When he realized Steve had had perfectly good allies at his disposal when they’d gone to Siberia but instead risked going there only with Bucky, who could have been turned into the Soldier at any time, he was so furious he was very glad to no longer have the HYDRA arm, because he’d have probably used it to break something. The Wakandan one was far from being so well suited to destruction.

It was all absurd. It was entirely in character, of course, for Steve not to like following rules, but he’d never thought it could go so far he would destroy his whole team over it. As someone who’d been enslaved by HYDRA for seventy years, Bucky took Steve’s insistence that the government was trying to use them as attack dogs very personally.

He knew what that looked like, and this wasn’t it.

And, of course, there was the whole Maximoff business.

When Bucky read about Johannesburg – a combination of the private Avengers files FRIDAY gave him and the public report of the event, as well as other reports of the Hulk in action which showed he had never before behaved like this, all things that confirmed the Avengers’ statement that it had been Maximoff who was behind it – he had been literally sick.

He had been HYDRA’s secret weapon for seventy years, and he never did anything this horrible.

It was really her, one of the HYDRA twins, doing even more disgusting things than he could have imagined...and Steve took her on his team, without even bothering to make her go through a trial.

Again, a good thing Bucky no longer had his arm.

After he discovered all this, Bucky frankly felt he needed a bit of a break. He talked to Danvers, feeling like she would understand better than Rand did – he just could not find a way to talk to the guy, and the space alien still made him nervous. Danvers talked to Stark for him, apparently, and the result of it all was that Stark lent him his car – well, one of his cars – and told him to explore the States for a bit, see what changed, before he was chained down with war preparation duties.

So Bucky did what he was told, spending a few weeks roaming across the country in an amazing car and enjoying himself like he hadn’t since before the war, before he got the news that Steve was back. He was then asked – in very apologetic tones – if he wouldn’t mind calling him immediately and telling him of his discomfort with Maximoff personally. They didn’t think Steve would believe anyone else. Bucky reserved his judgement on that, but he had called, and it had been brief and uncomfortable, and made Bucky wish to see Steve even less.

So, really, he didn’t think waiting two days before returning to New York was so bad, all things considered.

Bucky had enjoyed his holiday, and was loath for it to end.

Once he actually turned back, however, he was in New York in a few hours, and as he got out of the car, Steve was already in the door to the mansion, smiling in welcome.

“Bucky!” He said, extending his arms, and in spite of everything, Bucky did not hesitate to go and give him a hug.

“I’m so glad you’re here,” Steve muttered into his ear, then let him go. He frowned over his shoulder. “Why didn’t you use a quinjet?”

So Steve was apparently under the impression Bucky had been in the Compound. Not feeling like explaining his road trip right now, Bucky decided not to contradict him, and answered as if he had been there, which led to giving Steve a confused look. “Aren’t those just for Avengers business? It mean, they must be expensive as hell to fly.”

Steve shrugged. “It’s not like Tony can’t afford it,” he said, “but I guess you enjoyed driving that monstrosity of a car, didn’t you?”

He was grinning now, and so Bucky nodded with a smile, though he didn’t see what was so monstrous about the car. Sure, it was sleek and bright red, but as far as he knew, those were still legal.

Steve led him inside. “It’s a bit pompous here,” he said. “It’s too bad Tony sold the tower. It felt more like home.”

“Well, I guess it was more his home?” Bucky said, a little uncomfortable. He didn’t know much about it, but he did know it was Stark Tower first, before being renamed Avengers Tower and then sold after Stark withdrew from the Avengers.

“Well, he sold it, didn’t he?” Steve pointed out. “Anyway, I think you’d have liked it. This is apparently where Howard used to live, though, so that’s something, I suppose.”

That...did _not_ make Bucky feel any more comfortable, and he gave Steve an incredulous look. Was he really talking about Howard, of all things? And did Tony really send him to live in the house that used to be his childhood home? _Why?_

Steve seemed completely unaware he’d said anything wrong, and instead accompanied Bucky further inside, saying: “I asked Thor which was your room and took the one next to you, so if you need me, I’ll be right by your side.”

Bucky tried not to feel even more uncomfortable by that as he headed to the living space. Steve, however, put a hand on his shoulder and steered him elsewhere. “I though we could talk in my room – or yours, if you want.”

“Yours is fine,” Bucky muttered, and obediently headed in that direction.

Steve’s room looked much like he’d imagined – pretty sparse, nothing much added to the furniture it must have come with originally, only some of his drawings were stacked on the desk.

Steve took one armchair and gestured to the other, and Bucky sat down without protest. They were right next to each other, just a tiny table between them, and Steve’s hand was on his shoulder again, as Steve said quietly, but with emphasis: “Buck...are you all right?”

Bucky smiled at him in spite of himself. “Yeah, I’m fine,” he said.

“I was so worried when I heard they sent you to court!” Steve continued. “I’m so sorry I couldn’t stop it!”

Bucky’s smile disappeared as he stared at Steve. “You...know I gave myself up willingly, right?”

“Well, that’s what they said, but-”

“It’s the truth, Steve,” Bucky said with emphasis. He neglected to point out it was also what _he_ had said, in that fucking video he had to record to prevent Steve from going on a rampage.

“But it wasn’t you, it was HYDRA!” Steve said insistently.

“Which is exactly what the court proved,” Bucky pointed out.

“So why go there at all, when you knew this the whole time?”

Bucky frowned at him. “It wasn’t about me, Steve! People the Winter Soldier has hurt – people like Stark – needed the closure.”

“You don’t owe Tony anything,” Steve said bitterly.

Bucky took a deep breath. “Let’s just...agree to disagree on that one, okay?”

Steve shook his head. “I don’t get it. You were so angry about having to go to court when Wanda didn’t when we talked on the phone-”

“Me going to trial isn’t he part I hate, Steve,” Bucky said, some cold creeping into his tone.

Steve stared at him with his wide eyes. “But Wanda was just a kid!”

“She was over eighteen, and she voluntarily joined HYDRA,” Bucky replied, enunciatign each word very clearly.

“She was manipulated! She didn’t really know who they were, and she was trying to help her country!”

Bucky had to concede that was possible. Still. “That’s something a court should decide, too, if she was responsible for her actions. You know we have courts and all that for a reason.”

Steve shook his head: “They’d be afraid of her, prejudiced...Bucky, this whole country was basically ran by HYDRA at one point, how could I ever trust Wanda to the courts?”

Bucky just gave him a look. “Funny you should mention HYDRA. Wouldn’t that mean she had even more of a chance to be found not guilty?” 

“Bucky-”

“What about her victims, Steve? The people in Johannesburg?”

Steve stubbornly shook his head. “She changed. She was just a kid, and she realized she made a mistake. She already paid for it when her brother died. She didn’t deserve to eb dragged through the mud.”

“That wasn’t on you to decide,” Bucky tried to explain.

“Why not?” Steve asked mulishly. “Who else _should_ decide it? I know her – better than any court ever could, and the public trusts me. We are the good guys, Bucky. Heroes. They _should_ trust us in things like this.”

“Steve,” Bucky said with a sigh, “everyone thinks about themselves as a good person. Or almost everyone.” He didn’t any more, not really, but then he was a bit of an extreme case. “Definitely a lot of criminals do. A lot of my HYDRA handlers did.”

Steve frowned at the comparison. “Well, they don’t have the Erskine serum to confirm it, do they?”

Bucky stared at him. He felt they had finally come to the crux of the problem, and it terrified him. “So...everyone should just do whatever you say because a magic serum said you were a good guy?” He asked incredulously.

“Don’t twist my words, Bucky!” Steve replied, irritable. “But you have character witnesses in courts. Well, I think my word should be good enough about a person I know.”

“That still means taking it to court at least,” Bucky said, relieved at this concession, small as it was.

Steve, however, shook his head. “If my word is good enough,” he said stubbornly, “there is no need for a trial.”

There was a very long silence.

“Have you already found the therapist we all now need?” Bucky then asked carefully, trying for all he was to make it seem like the topic as entirely unconnected.

Steve grimaced. “No. I’m still trying to convince someone it’s unnecessary – Dany seems like he agrees with me, honestly, and Thor seems torn on the topic, I think I can convince him - but just in case Danvers pulls rank on us...do you think you could convince yours to say she was seeing me, too?”

Bucky closed his eyes, exhaled, and leaned back in his chair.

He was beginning to wish Thanos would hurry up and arrive already, because he wasn’t certain how much of this he could take.


End file.
